Crime Sq. hell hotel

Just steps from Times Square, police and prosecutors have found a hellhole of crime in a seedy hotel run with government money, the Daily News has learned.

Inside the Aladdin Hotel, the manager packed heat while drugs, guns and hookers were all peddled for a price, according to court records and sources close to a probe by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

Advertisement

It was even home for a counterfeiter who turned out $10 bills.

The 150-room SRO hotel at 317 W. 45th St. was built by Vincent Astor, one of New York's richest men, in 1918.

Today, the city is paying an estimated $400,000 a month to house homeless couples.

"It's one of the best locations in the world for criminal activity," a source close to the probe said.

According to court records, the Aladdin's former manager, Ismael (Jay) Crespo, a convicted drug dealer, has been indicted on gun charges and could plead guilty as early as today.

Sources say that prosecutors also investigated claims that Crespo and hotel operator Alan Lapes were ripping off the city Department of Homeless Services.

At the heart of that inquiry is whether the two men had defrauded the city by billing the agency for couples who had moved out or were living in Lapes' other hotels, the sources said.

"He's certainly a subject of interest," a top investigative source said of Lapes.

Lapes angrily denied those charges yesterday, saying he fired Crespo after the gun arrest and makes sure to keep drugs, prostitutes and criminal elements out of the building.

"I try to run a nice operation and provide a service for the city," said Lapes, adding that it would have been impossible to rig the Homeless Services payment system.

"If I was involved in any way, obviously the police would have pulled me in, and that didn't happen," he said. "The last thing I need is a problem."

But Aladdin residents told The News they are forced to live amid drugs, violence and vermin.

"It's filthy. The rooms are filthy. Anything can happen in here," said Jeannie Fiammetta, 46, who has lived there with her husband for eight months.

The probe by Morgenthau and the NYPD began in July 2006 when a resident, Aldo Guerrini, Jr. overheard a drug dealer in an Aladdin stairwell plotting to kill Crespo, sources said.

Advertisement

A month later, Crespo was nabbed for carrying a gun he said he needed for protection. Soon, the NYPD's gang unit was scrambling to investigate the flood of criminal tips that Guerrini and other moles were feeding them from inside the hotel.

Cops later arrested at least three other people for firearms sales, according to court records.

In January, they grabbed Matthew Anderson, 38, who was accused of printing counterfeit $10 bills in Room 107. He pleaded guilty last week and is facing up to six years in prison.

The NYPD shut down the operation and moved Guerrini to another hotel for his own protection.

Later, Guerrini's ended his cooperation when he said cops failed to protect thousands of dollars' worth of property he left behind in the Aladdin.

Guerrini said he complained to the NYPD's Internal Affairs unit - and soon after his identity was exposed at the Aladdin.

"We have met with the district attorney because of our very serious concerns that one of their witnesses was not protected by the police," said Guerrini's attorney, Robert Gottlieb.